The Convenient Bride by Catherine Winchester Page A

did, she would shout and scream a torrent of abuse at him, which would shatter the fragile defences that she was slowly putting back into place around her heart.
    On the sixth day of her confinement however, she had no choice but to speak to him.
    “I don’t want you working at the orphanage anymore,” he said, out of the blue.
    For the first time, she turned her head and looked at him, regarding him with a cool disregard.
    “Excuse me?”
    “You fell there a nd lost our baby, it’s not safe for you to continue to teach there.”
    It took every ounce of willpower that she possessed not to scream at him that it was learning about him and his mistress that had caused her to fall , but somehow she managed.
    “I didn’t fall at the orphanage,” she said, her eyes glinting with the anger she couldn’t express.
    “Then where-”
    “It doesn’t matter. You will not take the orphanage away from me.”
    He looked confused and perhaps a little hurt by her icy demeanour , but simply nodded his agreement.
    Lucy looked away and they lapsed into silence, as with so many of his visits. Perhaps spurred on by the first words she had spoken to him in a week though, a short while later he felt compelled to ask, “What did I do?”
    Lucy simply gave him an icy glare.
    “I feel as though you hate me,” he elaborated. “What did I do that upset you so?”
    “You didn’t do anything, Maxwell. This is all my fault, I-” She knew if she continued she would tell him of her discovery that day , and she simply couldn’t afford to let him know how much he had hurt her. “I’m grieving and you are a reminder of what I have lost. That’s why I can’t stand the sight of you.”
    His shoulders relaxed a little but the tension didn’t completely leave him.
    “We can try again, Luce.”
    Lucy swallowed down a wave of revulsion at the thought of having sex with him again. The thought of his hands and his lips on her skin, the idea of feeling him pushing inside her and then at the end, perhaps a forced profession of love, repulsed her and she shuddered.
    She would rather sleep with rats that sleep with Max.
    “I can’t even contemplate that at the moment.”
    “Please, Lucy, at least let me share your bed at night again, I promise not to become amorous but I find it hard to sleep alone now. I miss you.”
    “Then sleep at your club, Maxwell, I'm sure there are plenty of women there who would gladly keep you warm at night.”
    Max felt as if he had been slapped. Why would she bring that up now?
    He had spoken to his mother about her cold attitude towards him but his mother assured him that she would recover, in time. Eleanor had lost two children of her own before they were born and she knew from experience how difficult it was. She explained that every woman dealt with that grief differently but as long as he supported her, she would get over the loss.
    He had been surprised when he tried to enter her room that first night and found the door locked. He tapped gently but she didn’t answer. Unwilling to wake her if she was asleep, he had returned to his own room and each night after that, her door remained locked to him.
    He thought that she was lying and that she very much blamed him for not being there for her, as he blamed himself.
    It hadn’t occurred to him that she had fallen somewhere other than at the orphanage , but that thought was pressed from his mind for the moment, by the fact that she was talking to him again. It was a mixed blessing since she seemed so detached, but it was better than silence.
    He left her soon afterwards and was surprised when she came down for dinner that evening, although her hair was only plaited and her gown was a simple morning dress. He smiled tenderly as he saw her but she didn’t even glance at him. She took her seat beside him and the staff scrambled to set her a place.
    “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he said.
    Lucy took a long sip from her wine glass as soon as it was filled.